>>> I am worried about this as today I saw Dama and another horse eating the buttercups, although previously they had been avoiding them. Is this a big red flag? Should I pull her out of this pasture immediately?
I'd ask your local Agriculture agent, and pay attention to other pastures in your area. Buttercups are everywhere in this area. Generally, the horses don't eat them if they have plenty else to eat, and I've never heard of a horse getting sick from them, although I think they are poisonous. We've tried to get rid of them but I think about the only way to do it is to teat the pastures completely up, replant with fescue, and keep the fescue fertilized - and we simply can't have Icelandics on rich, fertilized fescue here - they'd burst. (We could plant another pasture grass, but with our heat, and semi-regular summer droughts, no other grass seems to hold up to grazing here.) I'd always ask a local source though, rather than depending on what list people tell you. It's possible that there are different plants with the nickname "buttercup" in different areas of the country - some folks even call daffodils by that name here. What I mean by "buttercups" are the little flowers that are maybe 3/4" - 1" across, and the blossoms are shiny, almost like patent leather. And it's always possible that you have a different variety of the same species in your area, or that your soil content may make them more or less toxic. Ask an expert in your locale. In the past few years, I've also heard that wild onions (wild garlic) are toxic to horses. It could be - somewhat. But I live in Union County, NC - which has often been nicknamed Onion County. Wild onions, in the garlic family, are ubiquitous here, and my horses - well, practically all the horses I know - often have onion breath. I don't know if it's our soil, the particular variety that is native here, or that it takes very large quantities to be poisonous, but they can't be too harmful - I know too many pasture-kept horses in the area who have had lots of onions for many, many years and still thrive into their 30's. Karen Thomas, NC No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.472 / Virus Database: 269.8.0/818 - Release Date: 5/25/2007 12:32 PM
